Kameradschaft

When a coal mine collapses on the frontier between Germany and France, trapping a team of French miners inside, workers on both sides of the border spring into action, putting aside national prejudices and wartime grudges to launch a dangerous rescue operation.

Opinion

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Quotes

What did you say? Six hundred?
-Yes, that's what the foreman said.
Poor devils. Hey, do they have enough rescue gear?
-Why should I care? They have more money than we do.
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You're part of the rescue team.
- What are the Frenchmen to me? Think they'd get us out? We know the Frenchmen, from the Ruhr occupation.
Guys, what do we care about generals? A miner is a miner.
-You think they'll pay your pension if something happens to you over there?
What about the men down there who can't get out? Don't they have wives and children?
- You'd better think about your wife. You think I'm going to suck up to the French?
Just wait until you're trapped down there and no one helps you. You'll be crying for your mother. … Cowards don't have to come along.
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Lucky for us the tunnels to the French pits are so well sealed. Otherwise that gas would have come right to us.

See this here. This leads to the French side. We broke through here during the war. It’s all one pit. You follow?
-Are you crazy? You’re gonna break through? If anyone finds out, we’ll be fired tomorrow.
You can stay here, sweetheart. The French aren’t fans of yours anyway.
-The French! I really shouldn’t go over. France insulted me. They’re gonna hear from me. I’ll tell ‘em off in German!
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I’m following the horse. He knows better.
-Hurry up! We’re not getting any air down here. Move it.
Well. Boy (to the horse)? Let’s see where you’ve led us.
-He doesn’t understand German.
Don’t say that. Sometimes horses like this are smarter than people.
-Let’s see what he likes so much around here.

(Sign ahead: FRENCH CUSTOMS OFFICE 650 FT.)
If they start with the passport business, we'll lose precious time… Don't stop, foreman. Step on it! Keep going!
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Comrades! We’re all united as miners. That’s why you brought me up from down below. And it’s because we’re all united that our comrade Kasper tore open the bars in Area 1315. And because there are only two enemies on our side of the border: gas and war! I tell you. We must never forget that. We’re all united as miners! Thank you comrades. We won’t say “farewell,” just “until we meet again.” Au revoir! Auf Wiedersehen!

Comrades, I couldn’t understand what our French comrade just said. But we all understood what he meant. Because it doesn’t matter if you’re German or French, we’re all workers, and a miner is a miner. But why do we only stick together when we're doing badly? Are we to sit idly by until they fill us with so much hatred that we shoot each other down in another war? The coal belongs to us all regardless of whether we shovel it on this side or the other. And if the bosses can't come to an agreement, we'll stick together. Because we belong together. Long live our French comrades. Gluck auf! (Good luck!)

Comment

Kameradschaft (camaraderie) is a 1931 B/W ancient disaster film and based on, per wiki, one of the worst industrial accidents in history, the Courrières mine disaster in 1906 in Courrières, France. Some unusual scenes, such as a barn next to the railcar room with a horse named Bijou eating hay deep inside the mine! Also, unusual display of old tools and historic mining stuff, including a loud scary looking medical apparatus which might have been a mechanical respirator for miners' first aid.

Note: worthwhile to fast read the essays by Philip Kemp and critic Luc Sante in the accompanying booklet.